‘CBS This Morning’ ratings rise, Eye Opener video montage credited

"CBS This Morning" co-hosts Norah O'Donnell, Charlie Rose and Gayle King have been making gains in the morning TV schedule, with the show up 1.54 million viewers since its launch four years ago. Photo Credit: CBS / John Paul Filo

Every morning Rose introduces the rapid-fire video montage that opens the program with the words, “Your world in 90 seconds.” Using news video and sound bites from CBS and other sources, including a sprinkling of one-liners from late-night comics, the Eye Opener has become the show’s visual trademark.

“It’s a perfect kernel of energized, bite-sized information and imagery that kick-starts the hour while clearly branding CBS as the network where news lives in the morning,” said former CNN president Jonathan Klein. “It’s kind of the news equivalent of Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Hashtags’ or ‘Thank You Notes.’ ”

CBS News would surely be thrilled if the Eye Opener could attain the same kind of viral video cachet as Fallon’s “Tonight” show bits. To help that effort, it’s making the segment available in an e-mail newsletter. Viewers can now sign up on the “CBS This Morning” website to receive the Eye Opener for viewing — and sharing — on their computers or mobile devices after the broadcast.

The digital distribution aims at spreading the word about “CBS This Morning,” which is seeing some payoff from positioning itself as a more news-driven alternative to its breezier competitors, ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today.”

In February, Rose and co-anchors Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell gave CBS its best morning ratings in 22 years with an average of 3.94 million viewers. The program still trails “Good Morning America” (5.07 million viewers in February) and “Today” (4.9 million). But the CBS audience has grown by 1.54 million viewers since its January 2012 launch.

Much of the increase comes from older viewers who prefer a more serious approach in the morning. But “CTM” has become more competitive among women ages 25 to 54, a coveted audience for advertisers that buy news programming. The program gained 10 percent in that demographic during February, while “GMA” was down 14 percent and “Today” declined by 9 percent.

The Eye Opener is the work of five “CTM” staffers who hunker down in the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan at around 7 p.m. to scan through hours of video ingested during the day and through the night. The final edited product, which covers over a dozen stories with more than 100 images, is completed moments before it goes on the air. The segment is updated for an 8 a.m. version and again for the “CTM” feed for the West Coast.

“It’s very intense in the room where they put it together,” said executive producer Chris Licht. “It’s one of the few places I don’t go into very lightly.”

“We had not yet decided who the hosts were going to be,” he said. “We just knew had to do something different to open the show that immediately told viewers that we’re not the same as the other morning broadcasts.”

The fast-moving segment has even attracted an audience that doesn’t typically watch TV news. Licht has been told that teachers are showing the Eye Opener to their students to engage them in current affairs.

“It’s a pretty brilliant alternative to flipping through the paper before running out the door,” said Lisa McRee, a veteran Los Angeles TV news anchor and a “CTM” fan. “Even my teenagers watch it.”